A large plurality of Americans, 39 percent, say unemployment is the most important problem facing the country today. “Unemployment” recently managed to take the top spot away from the issue of “the economy in general” in Gallup’s polling.

I recently had the opportunity to visit California’s State Assembly and watch the legislature in action. I think this opportunity provided me a deeper understanding of the problem ailing California politics.

The first thing to know is that, if you’re a Republican legislator in California, you are always, always losing.

All goes back to corruption surrounding Walker’s days as Milwaukee County executive. And this probe has been going on since last year. At that time, reports surfaced that a Walker staffer paid by Milwaukee County was instead sock-puppeting about Walker on blogs during his gubernatorial election. This probe has been widening ever since then. This seems particularly suspicious.

Do they all become pod people when they go to DeeCee or is there just something about being an elected official that turns once (possibly) reasonable people into the worst type of concern troll (definition 2)?

James Carville thinks the White House should panic, something that usually doesn’t inspire confidence in leadership. I actually like some of his specific steps – indicting the banks is a good idea way past its time, and defending the Democratic Party platform sounds like a plan. Overall, a Carville agenda sounds like an improvement on the current agenda.

It may be too late for all this, however.

On September 23, one week from tomorrow, the Palestinian Authority will lead an effort to be recognized as an independent state at the United Nations. With serious peace talks stalled for years and with the Palestinians having little alternatives or leverage to force a return to negotiations, they decided that going to the UN was the best course of action. And while the US can veto the effort at the Security Council, a General Assembly petition for “observer status” is more likely to succeed.

On September 14, capitol police, who claimed there was a ban in effect on filming, arrested a number of people at a Wisconsin state assembly meeting. An edited YouTube video posted shows the police systematically rounding up individuals who were recording the meeting with any device.

The officers apparently acted on a “notice posted outside the assembly” that said “for reasons of safety and decorum” movie/video/TV cameras, photography, cell phones or pagers, and laptops, etc, are banned.

This stupid Solyndra circus is starting to remind me of the late 1990s, when any whiff of scandal was like catnip to the media. This is 1/80th of the total price of loans made from the Energy Department’s program, none of the other companies involved have failed, and yet this is supposed to be an object lesson in how green jobs cannot compete. Never mind the $40 billion in subsidies given to oil and gas companies or the hundreds of millions in loan guarantees propping up the nuclear industry. This notion of a free market in energy is ridiculous.

In point of fact, the domestic solar industry, a net exporter last year, happens to be booming.

House Speaker John Boehner just rejected – but in a nice way! – the American Jobs Act, saying that the plan is “a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in America.” Incredibly – and you’re not going to believe this – Boehner cited deregulation and lower taxes as the path to economic growth. But curiously, he rejected the tax cuts in the American Jobs Act, meaning that there will be higher taxes on all American wage earners by January.

The Secessionist knows how to make a buck. He didn’t become a millionaire while he’s been governor by chance.